


Just a Beer

by Name1



Category: The Mandalorian (TV)
Genre: Angst, Boska, F/M, Family Feels, Flirting, Fluff, Jealousy, Mandalorians trying to romance, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-07
Updated: 2021-03-13
Packaged: 2021-03-13 13:21:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,278
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29901696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Name1/pseuds/Name1
Summary: When an interesting man owes you a beer, what else do you do but travel across the system to cash in on that drink?Follow up to A Pleasant Sort of Debt.
Relationships: Boba Fett/Koska Reeves
Comments: 26
Kudos: 18





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> A sequel to
> 
> [A Pleasant Sort of Debt ](https://archiveofourown.org/works/28716105)
> 
> This doesn't do the story in my head justice, but I can't keep staring at it forever to improve it, so here it is :)

It's not until several months later, that she actually reaches out to him when a mission lines up in his sector--his planet, even.

"I'll be on your dustball of a planet for the afternoon with Axe on business," she informs him over the open channel. "You owe me a beer."

"So I do,” he agrees. “I'm a man of my word."

Boba was surprised to hear from her. After the last time they crossed paths, he figured that was it. Women like _that_ don't come along every day. Especially not to see him....

.........................

Koska didn't mind being forward—afterall, she’d never been described by anyone as timid. She wanted to see him, so here she was. There weren't a lot of people she wanted to run across a second time and a grand total of zero that she'd seek out in any way, but from the desert sand under her boots, there might be maybe one....

She and Axe arrive first at the meeting spot. She chooses a table near the rear exit so her back is to the wall and she has a good view of the whole room. As soon as she saw the recognizable green armor step inside the bar, she turned to Axe and told him to get lost. "You got a hot date?" he teased her, and she flipped him off without even looking his way. She didn’t tell him who she was meeting; only that it was a contact of hers and that his hovering wasn't needed or wanted. 

Boba walks in and surveys the room, spotting her immediately. He sees her and the dark-haired man he assumes is Axe sitting together. If he was capable of jealousy, he might almost be jealous of this good-looking guy. He's maybe only a few years younger than Boba himself, but he's obviously led a much easier life, as evidenced by the thick head of hair and lack of visible scars. _He was not buying this guy a beer as well._ His attention turns to Koska--the Mandalorian he was here to see. She looks as serious as ever, but he can see how comfortable she is around this person beside her. They must go on missions all the time, he thinks. She tells the pretty boy in no uncertain terms to get lost and finish the job without her and he goes without a fuss, but not without first sending a glare Boba's way. _Was that supposed to be threatening?_ he thinks. _How cute._

"Your riduur is well trained." he notes, as he sits down across from her in the now unoccupied chair and takes off his helmet.

She does a very good job of not spitting out her drink--water by the looks of it. "What?!"

"Surprised I know any Mando'a?" he asks, as he gets comfortable.

"I don't know how many languages you know," she admits, "but I don't have a riduur or the equivalent in **_any_** language.” She gestures to herself, broadly. “Who could possibly be good enough for this?"

He’s been in her presence for less than fifteen seconds and he's already forcing down a smile. "Such humility."

.....

He orders two beers from the droid that appears at their side, and almost misses her sliding something across the small table toward him. "What is that?" he asks, as his eyes catch on the glinting metal.

"A knife-- _your_ knife, actually," she explains. _As if he didn't recognize it......_

She slides the blade the rest of the way across the table and he picks it up.

"If you wanted to ask me to marry you, you should have just asked," she quips. _Surely he knew Mandalorian traditions around gifting weapons….._

It's his turn to splutter his drink as he turns over his weapon he hasn’t seen in months. "I'd shoot myself in the head first."

She leans across the table as if working out a business deal. "I could do it for you. Free of charge."

He slides the blade back to her, but she stops him. "I wanted to return it," she insisted and went on to explain she had found a replacement for her old one.

"Found, or _stole_?" he asks.

"Same thing, if you get rid of the previous owner," she explains, and the grin that graced her face could bring down starships. He couldn’t help but crack a smirk as well. He'd never admit it, but he had missed her smart mouth and her cocky confident attitude. Not many people would challenge him to a fight and believe they could win, but petite as she was, she genuinely believed she had a shot against him. He wasn't immune to her unique and infuriating charm either. He'd never admit it, but he missed those few quiet moments that'd had in that shuttle.

He raises his glass in a toast. "Same thing."

...............

Koska cursed to herself as an hour went by. _Damn_. This was easy. It wasn't supposed to be easy. It was supposed to be something she suffered through just to return the knife, but she enjoyed every second sitting at the table with him. She hoped he'd be obnoxious and she'd be over this attraction to him that lingered all these months, but that wasn't the case at all. He was obnoxious all right, but easy to talk to like she remembered. They caught up easily and talked about what she'd been up to since the last time they crossed paths and she saved his sorry ass. When it was his turn, he brought her up to speed on what he's been up to as well. 

As he talked, she watched his hands move over his glass which had drops of condensation dotting the smooth surface and when it was her turn to chime in, he put some sort of crunchy snack mix from the bar into his mouth to pass the time. _Shit_ , between watching his hands and his mouth she was getting herself worked up with no promise of relief. It didn't make any sense why she was so distracted by such simple gestures. She really needed to get laid—that was the only explanation.

Boba noticed her intense eat-shit look was slightly downgraded to an intent look of interest as he spoke. The first time they met, she tried to take his head off, and the second time she’d staunched the flow of blood with her bare hands while she kept him talking and arguing until he was on the mend. She had many layers underneath the pretty outer one, and none of them were unattractive. Until several months ago, he didn’t know someone like her actually existed: strong, confident, didn’t shy away from a fight but jumped in head-first. Beautiful too. Stubborn to a fault. She was thankfully older than her baby face-- _though fierce_ \--portrayed her as. He didn't feel like such a creep when he learned she was almost thirty--still half his age, but more than old enough he could stare at her mouth without shame. 

It wasn't long before a clearly overly-intoxicated young man stumbled up to their table, interrupting them mid-sentence. His sights are clearly set on Koska, but Boba surprises her by not jumping to her defense. He knows she can handle it, and that speaks to her more than if he jumped to her 'rescue'. His self-control and patience clearly far outweigh her own, she thinks. His threshold for tolerating bullshit must also be higher than hers too, but that wasn't hard--hers was practically zero.

“I get a shot next,” random drunk guy says to her, like she should be flattered, but her gaze could melt steel. 

Boba sees the look of disinterest on her face battling with her desire to start a fight and lets out a chuckle at this idiot's nerve. He waves him off. "Move along kid, while you still can."

The guy’s slurred speech is only overshadowed by the smell of alcohol on his breath.

"Not until I get my shot with this one."

Koska cocks her head at this guy's idiocy. "He said, 'move along'," she repeats, in case he missed the clear message.

"Baby, the men are talking." He went to silence her by holding up his hand, but his entire arm was twisted painfully behind his back before he even knew what happened. 

"Put a hand in my face again and I remove it," she hisses, and with the leverage on his arm, it took no effort to walk him outside and toss him down on the ground to sober up. He was just a stupid kid, and as much as she loved a brawl, she didn't want to shoot him unless he upped his game.

"Another beer?" she asks nonchalantly, when she returns. She doesn't seem fazed at all by their interruption.

"That happen a lot?" Boba asks, impressed with her cool demeanor. _She must have been practicing._

"I'm used to it, I guess?" she says to brush it off. "Mandalorians are some kind of novelty to most people."

"It was probably your face, not your armor," he responded.

She looks at him curiously. " _What,_ my resting bitch face? That definitely brings over weirdos looking for a challenge."

"That's not what I meant," he explains. "You're not the ugliest thing in this room is all."

She almost felt a smile tug at the corner of her mouth at his compliment. 

"Neither are you."

.........................

Hours went by and the bar had long outworn its novelty. She was getting antsy. She needed to move to work off some of this energy. "You throw knives?" she asks, as she eyes a target nailed up on the wall.

"Why? You want to throw one at me?"

"Only if you piss me off."

He turns over the knife in his hand as if contemplating how to answer. "I do all right..."

She knew he was competitive; she could just feel it. "You're being modest now?” she asks teasingly. “I didn't take you for a lightweight" she antagonized him, gesturing to his two empty beer glasses.

He didn't fail to take the bait. 

"--and by ' _all right_ ', I mean I always win."

That's better, she thinks. "Me too. Loser buys next round?"

They take turns aiming for the circle in the middle of the target, trying to one-up each other, but it's a close game. They're both damn good.

"So, what the hell actually brought you out here?" he asked, when it was her turn; partially to distract her so she'd slip up, and partially because he was actually curious.

She hits the target dead-center with her non-dominant arm before answering. "Picking up a weapons shipment of some sort. Axe is handling it."

"The queen bitch didn't tell you what's in it?"

She smirked at his attempt to rile her up and make her miss. "Unlike you, I trust **_her_**."

He chuckles the beginning of a laugh as he steps up to take aim next. "I'm the most truthful man you'll ever meet."

"Yeah right," she says with an eye roll, "the most irritating maybe."

"Thank you."

“I was insulting you," she points out. "Pay attention."

"Were you? I’ve learned to just drown it out." He hits the center of the target again with very little effort. 

"Fine, you're not terrible with a knife." She forced herself to keep her cool. He knew how to push her buttons and she refused to be led. "Want to go shoot something instead?"

He lets a small grin slip through. "I know a place."

......................

They make their way out the door to the open air and Koska looks around where she deposited that inebriate from earlier, only to find the area empty.

"Guess that idiot crawled home," she declares, as her appraisal of the area turns up nothing.

"Dumb kid," Boba says, "he must have thought that eat-shit look was your interested face."

She finds that funny. "I couldn't look any more uninterested if I tried. This resting bitch face usually does it."

"He was drunk,” Boba explains, “he wouldn't know an interested woman if she punched him in the face."

"I want to punch you in the face” she states, “does that mean I'm interested in you?"

"You're following me outta this bar. You tell me."

"Like you could keep up with me," she boasts. "Fuck off and let’s go."

She pushed him into the city street and swayed her hips side to side in front of him in a confident stride when it was clear which direction they were heading. He couldn’t help but focus on the movement exaggerated by the armor she wore. Between her jetpack, her belts and the armor on her legs, every movement in her strut was amplified in a way that drove him crazy. He was far too old to be this infatuated with someone he'd been around a grand total of three times. 

_What was it about her?_ he wondered, during their long walk out of town. When she walked in a room, people got out of her way like they did for him, but it wasn't her size that made her appear imposing. In fact, she was petite by Mandalorian standards; a fact he would never grow tired of reminding her of when it made her sneer at him like that. The armor definitely helped her cut an imposing figure, but it was something inside her that spoke to him more than her nice wrapping. Her confidence--projected or otherwise genuine--was alluring in and of itself. Everything underneath that, even more so. Most people didn't get that far before she pushed them away, but he could see through her exterior, and it was like looking in a mirror--a much better-looking mirror. He figured a woman who caught his eye for more than just her pretty face would never present herself; she probably didn't even exist. He lived alone for most of his life, but he was the opposite of desperate. He knew had excellent taste, but there hadn’t been anyone to compare his standards to until this smart-mouthed stubborn woman in front of him. Maybe that's why he was so suspicious......she was almost too much the personification of what made him look twice for it to just be a coincidence. 

.......

For Koska, the desire was already there from the last time they’d crossed paths, but the alcohol made it easier to see it for what it was. For a while after their last meeting, she'd tried to convince herself the attraction to him was just that--simple chemical attraction--hormones screaming at her after a dry spell to end all dry spells-- but it was becoming more and more clear there was more to it than that. She didn't fight herself so hard when the buzz in her brain agreed coming onto him harder was a great idea. 

They find a wide spot of the canyon for target practice and get into position to shoot, but they're too drunk to be precise. They keep attempting trick shots, but they snicker more than they hit their target. Eventually, they give up and throw rocks instead. It's competitive, but not in a nasty way. She'd almost guessed this was what a friendly game meant, but she hadn't had much experience with ' _friendly_ ' anything.

She gets a weird look on her face after she threw the last rock they'd collected. She almost looks in pain.

“What?” he asks in concern, at her sudden contemplative face.

“This was ..... _fun_.......” she says, unsure if that's the right word to describe the afternoon they'd had.

"It's not the worst way to spend the day," he concedes.

She thought back to Axe's teasing 'date' comment from earlier. That certainly wasn't what this was......but, what else would you call a meeting where you enjoyed spending time with someone? They'd pre-arranged to meet too, so there had to be some intent there from both sides, surely. Before she can overanalyze it too much, she sees Bo's shuttle fly in low overhead in the direction of the spaceport. Shit.

"I have to get back soon and meet up with Axe," she tells him, when she sees his eyes tracking the shuttle as well.

"What about that shipment?"

"Thanks for the reminder. I have to pretend I helped with those weapons. You still owe me a re-match though. The last time I saw you, you could barely get up.” She gives him a very _not_ subtle once-over to go along with her words. Her eyes burned straight into him.

"I can get up just fine right now."

She looked less than convinced at his relaxed position on the ground. "Prove it."

They fought in the middle of the canyon and didn't hold back. They even put their helmets back on so they could go full-tilt without worrying about fatal head blows. Her back would probably hurt later from when he slammed her against the rock wall of the dried up river, but it was worth it to finally let off some of this tension that was crawling under her skin. Their fight ended up on the ground, as it should, and they ended up rolling around on the rocky floor and getting covered in fine dirt. It was rough, hard, and they didn’t hold any punches--it was hot. Screw a nice afternoon of companionship--she was on fire.

There's maybe twenty minutes left before she receives the alert on her comm that it's time to meet up with Axe and rendezvous with Bo-Katan. She should have planned today better. They were almost out of time.

The intensity of the fight is over, but she surprises him when she scrambles back on top of him. He doesn’t fight her when it’s clear she’s not going for a cheap shot, but he’s uncertain where she’s going with this. “What are you doing?” 

She takes off her helmet. “We have too many clothes on for this," she says, as she starts tugging at her armor. "I have to leave soon."

He takes his helmet off too to stare at her. He knew they had a chemistry he had a hard time denying, but he had no reason to believe this is where the afternoon would lead. He was pleasantly surprised, but as a general rule, he didn’t like feeling surprised. “What are you, like twelve?” he says, in a pitiful attempt to piss her off so she'll stop confusing him with this sudden affection.

She snorts at the weak insult. “More than twice that.”

“And I'm four times that, and then some.”

She perches on his lap, stares at him, and licks her lip in a way that makes it clear what her intentions are. “Too old for a good time?”

“You're still drunk,” he says, when she straddles his waist and pushes him back on the rocky ground. _She had to be drunk, he thinks_. Why else would she be this adamant in her desire for him? They had an interesting connection and history, not to mention a surprisingly enjoyable afternoon, but that didn't explain her fervor in getting him on his back. He was beyond attracted to her, but he didn't think a roll in the dirt was how today would end. He thought he kept glimpsing something in her eyes, but he figured that was just him projecting,

“I'm not drunk and I'm not going to beg,” she states when he doesn’t so much as move with her when she rocks into him. “If you don't want to….”

“I didn't say that,” he cuts her off, “but I'm too old to be screwing around in the dirt.”

She moves slightly until she felt what she’d hoped to find. _So he really was into this….._

“Feels like you want to screw around,” she states, as enticingly as she can in the unusual locale. She reached for his belt buckle which was askew and sat next to his holster.

His hand shot up over hers. “Don't reach for a man's weapon. I almost shot you.”

“I'm not interested in your blaster if it might go off on accident. I hear that happens a lot at your age. You want to talk about it?” She's grinning at him by this point, knowing that would get a rise out of him.

“Fuck you,” he tells her, but there's no heat behind it. 

She pulled his hand where she wanted it between her legs and felt his fingers automatically curl against her. “Fuck me yourself, you coward,” she hisses. There was nothing that was going to put out this fire except finally ending this tension once and for all. 

She palmed him through the fabric of his pants. When he hissed and let his head fall back in silent surrender, she rocked against him three or four times and that was all it took to get him on board. When he bucked up against her in response, she kissed him hard. Her lips were softer than he thought they'd be with how hard her face always looked. Her lips were always pursed in a disapproving scowl, but like this they were soft and yielding against his. She was all over him. She knew what she wanted--he wanted it too. He rolled them so their positions were reversed. She looked good on her back with her hair covered in sandy dirt. His hand traveled up the side of her ribcage, and even with all the chest armor in place, he managed to feel the shape of her underneath it.

She could feel the minutes ticking by. “Come on, faster,” she hurries him, tugging at his clothes and her own to get them off as fast as possible. He felt so good on top of her pushing her into the dirt, and her legs locked around his back to pull him more firmly against her.

He wanted her, but could suddenly smell sweet bitterness from her drink. He could taste it in her mouth. With great self-control, he pulled himself off of her. “Next time, when you're not drunk.”

At the same time, there's the notification chime from her wrist--that was her ride. She feels the sting of rejection battling with desire and respect she had for his sense of honor—the rejection was what won out. “There won't be a next time,” she sneers at him, and moves to get up.

"Of course not,” he says, already missing her warmth and weight on him, “you said that last time too."

She leans heavily against his calf as she stands, slipping her knife into his boot as a parting gesture. “See you around.”

............................................................

She recalled the feel of his hands on her for the entirety of their shuttle trip back. She remembers the second he'd almost given in and how she’d held her breath waiting for it.

She was still intrigued by that idiot. He was boastful but never exaggerated what he was capable of and he didn’t oversell himself. He was attractive to her on so many fronts aside from just his sturdy build, and every time she met him the pull just got stronger. The first time they met, she had been surprised how much of a rise he had gotten out of her, but she hadn’t really gotten to know the man under the armor until she came to his rescue months later. This last time, there had been no pretense to hide behind--they weren't fighting and no one was dying. She had just come to see him, and he’d agreed to see her. For a second before he had pulled himself off her, she felt it--real desire—real want; real attraction so intense and visceral she hadn’t felt it so strongly before. She had been sure she’d felt it from him too….those few seconds when she felt his weight pushing her into the hard ground.

Bo-Katan is pleased with the shipment, from Tatooine of all places. Her voice snaps Koska out of her own head.

“You didn't run into that idiot Fett, I hope....”

“ _Who_?” Axe asks. “The weapons guy's name wasn't Fett. It started with an ‘M’.”

“The infuriating man in the green armor,” Bo-Katan clarifies. “Boba Fett.”

Axe looks between the two women in amazement. “Wait a minute. You mean, Boba Fett? Like **_the_** Boba Fett?”

Koska curls her upper lip in distaste. “Are there more? One is more than enough.”

“The one who survived the sarlacc?” Axe asks. “ _Really_? I thought he was dead.” His eyes went straight to Koska. 

Bo huffed an annoyed laugh. “Regrettably, he’s alive, and a continuous pain in my ass.”

Koska was oddly defensive of him, but couldn’t say anything incriminating, so she jumped in to put the conversation to a close.

“No, luckily he didn’t show his face. My blaster is still fully charged.” 

Bo-Katan nodded approvingly and went about her business inventorying the crates, but Axe couldn’t tear his eyes from Koska and the bold-faced lie she just told. He'd demand an explanation later and vowed not let her off the hook until she explained herself. He had no idea that’s who the man in the green armor had been. He’d heard rumors of Boba Fett. _Just what the hell was she doing with someone like that?_


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can you believe there was a time I actually had time to edit things and proofread? I can't either :|  
> Sorry about the choppiness and typos.

.............................

Boba prided himself on being strong-willed, but he wasn't a saint either, so the following time she showed up for his company, he didn't deny himself or _her………._ or the time after that, or the time after that. The rumors were true--sex _was_ better when you cared about the other person, but it was more than just their time between the sheets that seemed too good to be true. When he didn’t push her away like an idiot, she just kind of fit into the nooks and crannies of his unusual life without effort.

As time went on, it became less a series of random chance visits and more of a _thing_. She looked forward to sharing with him what she'd been up to and hearing him reciprocate. Boba never noticed a lull in their conversation even as the months went by—they talked about the planet, the economy, and all the boring things that suddenly weren't boring with her around. 

………………

Axe watched her with a more and more critical eye than before. This had been going on months upon months now. Every few weeks she'd sneak off.... sometimes she’d allow him to accompany her, but more and more she insisted she go alone.

She swore she knew what she was doing and that her personal affairs were none of his concern, but he couldn’t help but worry. He'd always been a good friend and pointed her in the right direction, but this wasn't something she could be easily talked out of. He tried seeing it from her perspective, but he just couldn’t figure out what she saw in that guy…From what he heard, Boba Fett was a first-class callous and pompous asshole who ruled with an iron fist, but that didn’t explain why Koska seems so at ease around him or why she’d smiled more in the last few months than in all the years previous. Axe could easily guess what Boba saw in her, but there had to be more to it than that. Koska, while stubborn and hard-headed, wasn’t naïve or one to be taken advantage of so easily. If she insisted there was actually something worth sneaking around under Bo-Katan’s nose for, then he was inclined to believe her. He only hoped she wasn’t setting herself up for disappointment. She seemed like she really cared about this guy, but Axe couldn’t break it to her that there was unlikely a future there. Admittedly, Axe had been a little humbled by how long their ‘thing’ had been going on already. Whatever it was, it seemed to work.

………….

Boba couldn’t even remember what they were arguing about this time. It didn’t really matter anyway; they loved to argue almost as much as they loved to win.

“And yet you keep coming back.....” he says to win their latest dispute, as if her mere presence annoys him. That couldn't be further from the truth and she knew it. His irritation with her would be much more believable if he didn’t have his hands around her waist with no intention of letting go.

“It's not for **_you_**...” she assured him.

“The landscape then?”

She curls her lip in a small sneer. “And the food and mild weather of course.” She turned in the circle of his arms and watched as the second sun set. This had become their thing—the quiet end of the day when the temperature dropped slightly, and they could be on the roof without broiling alive. She knew his hands almost as well as she knew her own by now, and mentally catalogued the different ways he touched her and the translation of each. His casually loose grip when they had nowhere else to be was one of her favorites because whenever she’d shift, his hand would twitch as if wanting to keep her there without saying a word. The flexing of his hand wasn’t necessary--she never moved until the sun went down. Didn’t he know that by now?

……

“There's nothing between me and Axe,” she tells him another time in bed when he’d been annoyed at seeing the other Mandalorian in the bar again. “There never has been--never will be. He's like a brother or uncle or something. He's watched out for me since I was little. Old habits die hard I guess.”

“You're little _now_ ,” he reminds her, while tensing for a fight.

“Say that to my face.”

She bared her teeth to add some bite behind her threat, but he just kissed her and pulled her close. She went more agreeably than she’d ever admit to, but she didn’t cringe like she thought she would at backing down from the fight. She was less defensive about enjoying these trips than she used to be.

..............................

“What are you doing?” Fennec asks him one day when he appears to be in a particularly rare, good mood. Those usually followed a visit from a certain young woman. “You're too old to be playing around with her.”

"Who's playing?" Boba asks, already irritated with the line of questioning. 

“ _She_ is,” she states shortly. “She's playing you, and I’m not sure for what outcome, but I don't want to see you get hurt.”

“I’m a big boy,” he reminds his associate. “Take your nannying elsewhere.”

“I’m just sayi—"

“You're wrong, she's not like that.” 

....................................

“You sure you can't stay another day?” he asked, one day before she was due back yet again. That was the most forward thing he's ever said to her, she realized. She thought she'd gloat and savor it if he ever vocalized such a thing, but she was sad she had to go back and couldn’t come up with a witty joke to pretend otherwise. She wished she _could_ actually stay.....but visits were the best she could manage. 

“I can't,” she tells him, her voice tinged with regret. “I can come back and annoy you though.”

He has on his ‘annoyed’ face already. “I'll be sure to lock the doors ahead of time if I know when you’re coming.” 

.......................................................................

Axe covered for her more and more on these ‘missions’, and while he stayed in the background, Boba noticed his constant presence. He knew she required Axe to tag along so as not to raise Bo’s suspicions, but still……

“I don't like how he's always lurking,” he observes, when he can’t hold his tongue any longer. He’d disappeared for a while, but he’d been back today when Koska arrived at their usual place.

“You're jealous!” she declares, more than a little amused at the grumpy look on his face in the near total darkness of his bedroom.

He scoffs loudly in the dark. “I'll never admit that as long as I live.”

“Good. There's no reason to,” she states. “There's nothing there. I promise you."

It had been a long time since he trusted someone on their word alone, but he trusted her for some reason. 

“You sure?” he asks, not entirely convinced. “He follows you around like a lost dewback.”

“He's like my brother, shut up,” she laughs. “There's never been anything there. He covers for me is all--looks out for me when I do stupid shit, which is _never_.”

“You coming here is the definition of stupid shit,” he argues.

“You complaining?”

“Always,” he deadpans. “I can't get you to go away.”

“I'm stubborn,” she states. “Relocate to another planet if it bothers you so much.”

“I like it here,” he says, and she has to laugh. No one likes the Outer Rim. What he wasn’t saying was heard loud and clear.

....................................

She eventually managed to make a few solo trips where she managed to give Axe the slip entirely. Against his better judgement, once he figured out she had left him behind on purpose, he didn’t follow her. She was twenty-eight; more than old enough to make her own decisions. She wasn’t that headstrong fifteen year-old any longer who did the exact opposite just to piss him off back in the day when he’d first taken her under his wing. 

Axe keeps his distance, but he notices she has to pack a bag less and less over the months that followed. One of her bottles of shampoo in the communal bathroom is missing too and he puts two and two together. She must keep the small bottle of shampoo _there_ so she doesn’t have to remember to bring it every time. He’s both apprehensive and begrudgingly impressed at this second domestic life she’s carved out for herself there. She’s getting cocky though. Koska comes back looking happy more and more often, and Axe has to remind her more than once to keep her face neutral. She's going to give herself away and he won't be able to fix it for her. She's getting sloppy, and if he can see it, Bo will pick up on it too.

“What are you doing Reeves?” he asks her point blank one day, when she has a stupid smile stuck on her face that makes even her eyes appear brighter.

"Enjoying my time off?" she asks, casually aloof, as she throws her duffel over her shoulder.

“Is it Tatooine that’s so interesting, or someone who happens to live there?”

She lets out a long-suffering sigh. “Say what you want to say,” she tells him, appearing bored and impatient with the whole interrogation. She has a shuttle to catch….

“I think this is a bad idea and you're making it—----” he pauses when he notices she’s looking around and not focusing at all. He snaps his fingers right in front of her face to get her attention again. “Look, Koska ....a one-time thing is fine, but this is becoming a thing--a _regular_ thing. Where do you see this going?”

“You’d rather I go around have one-night stands?” she asks him facetiously, with a smug look on her face.

“Oh my god, you really are sleeping with him,” he says, struggling to keep his voice down in the crowded shuttle bay. He assumed that’s what was going on, but to hear it out loud made it real. She didn’t appreciate his judgmental face one bit.

“What I do off the clock is none of your business,” she said defensively. She may have seemed visibly happier than usual, but she was still the same combative Koska he knew beneath the surface. 

“I don't want to see this go bad,” is his only explanation for his meddling.

“It won't.”

She wasn’t sure why they worked, but they just did. Over these past few months, her happiest moments had been when **_he_** was around in all his assholery, somehow making her feel more at home **_there_** than with her actual family. At first, she thought it was just a coincidence that she was so satisfied after their rolls in the sheets, but it was getting hard to deny that there was more to it than that--she liked Boba in a way she couldn’t apply to anyone else—physical intimacy or not. She liked spending her time with him and she cared about him--had for quite some time. She’d never admit to that out loud though.

…….

One of their favorite pastimes is telling each other how much they don't like one another, but it's getting almost laughable now coming up with convincing arguments. They're equally matched in their general dislike of appearing soft. They're also equally matched in their tendency to lie it seems, but some things don’t need words to be obvious.

Their thing was also pretending he was annoyed by her visits, but he'd been 'annoyed' and contacted her on her emergency frequency when she was two days late arriving. He wasn't worried-- _that would be ridiculous_ \-- just inconvenienced by the unexpected change in plan. That's what he's said anyway. She told him of scheduling changes from then on to prevent his ‘not-worry’. 

She noticed little changes here and there at his place too—more proof of how annoying he found her visits they both planned ahead of time. Recently an electric blanket appeared at the foot of his bed, even though he hated heat at night. She hadn't even gotten the chance to complain about the cold in months, thanks to the accessory he insisted he didn’t buy on her account. He said it was the weirdest coincidence. It just happened to show up one day. She called him a liar and laughed when she kissed him on the mouth and pulled him into bed, where the heating blanket had already pre-warmed it.

.....................

More trips come and go.

More easiness

More routine

More anticipation

More letting their guard down

More carelessness.

…………….

Axe years yelling and shouting from the flight deck that shares a hallway with the medical wing. He already pities the poor soul on the other end of Bo-Katan's ire as he jogs a bit faster to investigate.

“What the hell is going on?” he asks, as the door opens, and he freezes when he sees Koska. _Shit._ She must have been sloppy ‘visiting’ Fett and gave herself away. He wasn’t sure how much damage control could be done now, but maybe it wasn’t as bad as he thought.

Turns out, it was worse. 

Bo might explode from the look on her face. “Do you want to tell him Reeves, or should I?”

Koska opens her mouth, but Bo beats her to it.

“This idiot is pregnant!” she yells in Axe’s general direction, without taking her piercing eyes off Koska. “She won't even say whose it is!”

“I told you, I don't know..... I was drunk,“ Koska says convincingly. She wouldn't give her any more reason to hate Boba than she already did.

"You don't even **_know_**?!” their leader asks in horror. “What have you been doing drinking that much? You could have spilled our secrets to an enemy! I thought you had better common sense!"

“It wasn’t an enem—” Koska starts to argue, but Bo-Katan cuts her off.

"You can't fight like this and if you can't be trusted, then I have no choice….”

Koska braced herself for the words she knew were coming but it’s not her mentor’s words that she hears next. It's Axe's voice that she hears instead, as he takes a step to put himself between her and their irate leader. "It's okay Koska, you don't have to lie for me anymore."

At his unexpected interjection, Koska’s mouth almost drops open. _What the fuck is this idiot doing?_ _What’s gotten into him, jumping into this?_ She looks at him like she might kill him herself if there’s anything left after Bo has a turn.

“I told her not to say anything,” he tells Bo-Katan convincingly, “but…………..it's mine.” 

Bo-Katan sees red—the same color as the heat rising on her cheeks. Koska is young and impulsive, but Axe is almost two decades older and should know better. He was supposed to look out for her, not in her pants. “Is his true? Did he coerce you into this, Reeves?”

Despite the insanity of the moment, Koska bristles at the insinuation she’s some weak naïve girl who was taken advantage of. “I’m a grown ass woman. I can fuck who I want.”

“To be fair, she came onto _me_.....” Axe says, to try to lighten the situation slightly to ease some tension, but Koska still looks like she will murder him the first chance she gets for jumping in. He figures he will deal with her later, but now he has to keep Bo-Katan from exiling them both.

“We were drunk, don’t blame her,” he insists. “Blame me instead.”

“I’m so angry, I can't look at _either_ of you right now,” Bo states, but she turns to Koska first. “ _YOU_ are off assignments until further notice, and **_YOU_**....." she turns to focus her attention on the older man. If looks could, kill Axe would already be dead. He’s not sure how she can appear to tower over him when she’s actually shorter than he is, but it’s impressive. "I haven't thought of a suitable punishment for **_you_** _yet_."

Bo-Katan turns her back to both of them as she storms out and Koska waits until the door closes behind her to turn on Axe and rush him against the nearest wall in anger.

“What did you just do?” she hisses in his face.

He stands his ground. He knows made the right call in that moment, even if Koska doesn’t see it yet. “I saved your ass,” he states, “she was going to exile you....”

Koska relaxes slightly and lets him step away from the wall. She had to admit he was right. His stupid stunt and outright lie had been enough of a diversionary tactic that Bo didn’t immediately kick her out. He bought them some time at least and took half of her ire himself--just because he was her friend.

“It's _HIS_ , isn’t it?” Axe asks her, not needing to say his name for the meaning to be clear.

Koska doesn’t even try to deny it. What’s the point? The idiot in front of her just put his life on the line to stand up for her, so the least she could do was admit the truth that was obvious. “Yes, and I should probably let him know.”

“You're right to tell him,” he agrees, “but you’re not going alone.”


	3. Chapter 3

..............................................................................

News travels faster than light. Bo-katan's right-hand-woman was knocked up.

Fennec is the one who breaks the news to him. _Koska is pregnant. Axe is the father._ Those are the only details she knows, but rumor had it Bo-Katan was more than shocked. 

“Go on, then,” he says, after a long moment of silence goes by, “tell me you were right.”

“I don't get any joy out of this," she tells him, "I just......." She trails off as she realizes she's rambling. "I’m sorry,” she says lamely. She’s terrible at comforting words. “I know you ...... _liked_ her.”

That was all she would say about that. She didn’t dare say what she was thinking—what she wanted to say. She wouldn’t say what she knew to be the truth. She knew he cared about her....loved her, even though she'd never heard the words.

Though Fennec knew his expectations had been low at the beginning, it had seemed so real from the outside as the months marched on. It was clear that he wanted this to work…..She was livid at this treacherous woman and felt terrible for him.

Boba went off by himself for the remainder of the afternoon and didn't return until sunsdown. He really thought there was something. That woman made him look forward to things again. Her visits had become so commonplace and her sincerity so convincing, he'd actually thought about what changes he could make for this to have a real chance. He thought about what it would be like doing this life he'd built with a partner. and not like Fennec—an actual life partner; someone to share things with. They already had something like that.... but some sort of official arrangement they could both agree to. 

He’d even thought about what he would say if she wanted children eventually... She was still young, and though unforgiving with adults and their stupidity, she had a soft spot and infinite patience for the village kids. If she took on a foundling or wanted a child from her own body, could he get on board with that? Yeah. He could. He would have. He could even get behind it—a cute little girl with her coloring and flyaway curls at the base of her neck, or a boy with his recklessness countered by her common sense. Those thoughts had no place taking up space in his mind any longer--not after this afternoon.

“You were right, I was a fool,” he says, later that night when he finally returns for dinner. "Go on, gloat." The afternoon had been an awkward affair of walking on eggshells for Fennec and he had made her favorite soup in apology for his foul mood. It wasn’t her fault. She had tried to warn him against it.... against thinking of the future, but he hadn't listened. 

She lets out a sigh as he sits down. “You're not a fool.”

She didn't enjoy telling him the rumor, but she couldn’t _NOT_ tell him either. She just didn't want him to hear it from anyone else. No one else would call him anything resembling a fool without one of her blasters leaving a hole in their chest. She really did feel for him though. He wasn’t gullible or naïve by any means, but he’d walled himself off for so long, that the one time he opened up just a little he might have been overly optimistic…..it only made it worse that the Nite Owl’s affection hadn’t been genuine. If the relationship had naturally grown old or fizzled out naturally that was something entirely different, but this was so much worse.

When Koska had reached out coincidentally only a few hours ago, Fennec had almost told her where she could shove her comm unit, but she didn’t want to let on that the secret was out and her deception was exposed, so she played nice and took down her message. She held her tongue so that maybe he could at least get some closure.

“She sent a message while you were out," she tells him. "She wanted to see you. She'll be here tomorrow, like always.”

“I genuinely hope she's happy,” he tells Fennec. “Pass along the message when you see her.”

“Tell her yourself.”

As angry and hurt as he was at the surprise intel, he couldn’t pass up the chance to see her--possibly for the last time. He responds that he'll meet her in the normal place. _Their place._

Later that night he finds it hard to sleep. Fennec's news from earlier wouldn't leave him alone to drift off and that damn heating blanket wasn't helping. He kicked it off and tossed and turned until he got comfortable again. He can't believe how easily he'd been duped. Still, he wants to hear the news from her own lips before he believes it entirely. He’ll hold his temper too, to let her say her peace. Something still didn't quite add up in his head and it had been prickling at the back of his mind all afternoon, no matter how often he tried to push it away to focus on his own disappointment. Something didn't seem right. He thought about how far along she had to be for it to even be detectable and the last few times she'd spent her days with him. Axe had been a presence at her side less and less, but when he was there, he never seemed possessive of her, or even attracted to her for that matter. Despite Boba’s initial suspicions, there was no longing or jealousy in the younger man’s critical glare of Boba himself either, just concern. He was just there....protective, but not interfering. Koska didn't seem remotely interested in that guy. There had to be more to the story, but there were pieces missing. 

If it turned out there was anything to the rumors after all, he'd deal with it. If this was what made her happy, he couldn't hate her for that. He'd been happy in a way he certainly hadn't planned on for a while now and it was admittedly addictive. He'd find some part of him that could still be happy for her and bring it to the surface. He just had to scrounge it up before tomorrow and rehearse a few convincing lines before he saw her face and it all went out the window. There was always a chance the whole thing was false, but why else would she reach out today of all days, if she didn’t want to tell him the ‘news’ in person? He supposed he'd find out soon enough.

..............................

They're both seated at the low table in the bar waiting for Boba to arrive, when Koska suddenly has to go throw up. The heat and the dryness of the air combined with her nerves and the hormones was too much for her unusually delicate stomach. She hopes Boba doesn’t show up while she’s outside but she has no choice but to leave or risk vomiting right there on the floor. She makes for the door without so much as a by-your-leave to Axe. He watches her go and sincerely hopes she’ll make it back by the time Fett makes his appearance _._ When a few minutes go by and there's no sign of her, he gets a sinking feeling in his stomach. _Maybe he should have stayed on the shuttle…._

Boba sees _Axe fucking Woves_ sitting at 'their' table ...... and all thought of keeping his cool went out the window. He could already feel the anger welling up inside him at the sight. He had no idea what to say to this asshole. He'd never talked to him, _why would he?_ The dark haired man was just a friend who was around when Koska was...visiting him. He never liked the way he always hung around but she had assured him there as nothing there. Boba hated being right sometimes. He approaches him from across the room as stops right next to his chair. Fuck being understanding, there had been a change of plans. 

“Get up,” he says gruffly, as he makes an impatient gesture with his hand.

Axe blinks at the command without any kind of introduction. “What?”

“I'm giving you the chance to stand, before I beat your ass.” It was a courtesy he didn’t deserve, but this was the last nicety he would grant this asshole.

Axe stands on instinct. “What are you talking about?”

“I know….about you and her,” he says cryptically, “ It true she’s knocked up?”

Axe missed the whole second part. He was too surprised by the first part of the allegation. At the sight of an angry Boba Fett in his face, he all but forgot the ridiculous lie he made up on the spot when Bo-Katan looked like she might detonate any second. “You got it wrong," he tells him. "There **_is_** no ‘me and Koska’.”

Boba didn't seem to appreciate his answer. _So, he just slept with her and it was meaningless? he thought, bitterly._ He was even more angry than before. “You aren't together then?”

"Of course not," he says. "I'm like a brother to her. She wouldn't even give me the time of day if she wasn't blackout drunk."

Boba wasn’t angry any longer—he was murderous. Her supposed ‘brother’ took advantage of her when she was inebriated? He was supposed to look out for her, Not get in her pants when she was under the influence. He'd betrayed her in the worst possible way. 

Axe sees Fett’s clench at his sides, and he realized that had been the wrong thing to say a split second too late, as a fist slammed into his face, and suddenly he was on the ground. The other heavier man was laying into him and he tried to keep his arms up to protect his head without fighting back and fueling his rage even more. Every instinct in him told him to fight back but it would just stoke the other man's fire even more so he just waited it out.

Koska comes back in and sees the fight. She rushes over to pry them apart. _She’d only been gone for a minute._ "What the hell is going on?” she demands. “Get off of him. He's here with me!"

“And why are _you_ here?” Boba asks her coldly, as he lets the other man drop to the ground. He promised himself he wouldn’t be angry at her, but it was evolving faster than he could keep up.

“To see **_you,_** you idiot!” she yells right back. “I came to tell you I—”

He cuts her off. “You're pregnant? I heard. Anything else?”

The words had been taken right out of her mouth. It takes her completely aback. “What? How did you know?” _Just what had he heard exactly?_

He explained how Fennec heard from an undisclosed source. “You want congratulations to you and your _' **brother** '_?”

She looks at him quizzically, confused by his anger. She knew he'd be shocked, but his rage was unexpected.. _.and what was he saying about her brother?_

She tilts her head as she tries to make sense of his words and standoffish body language, until they sink in. “Wait-- you actually think it's.....” 

When it finally clicks in her head, she suddenly shoves him with both hands hard enough he actually stumbles, despite his sturdy build. “It's **_yours_** , you asshole!” she yells, a bit too loud for the small indoor space. “Axe lied to cover my ass. I'll take whatever genetic test you want if you don't believe me.”

He looks down on the ground to the man already forgotten, who's talking around the blood in his mouth. “It's true, that’s what I tried telling you. I've never touched her. There's nothing like that between us. I had to say _something_!”

“I haven't slept with anyone else in almost eight years,” she tells him. “I didn’t think you’d believe such a stupid rumor.”

He puts together everything he'd learned and all the doubts he had from when Fennec first told him what she'd heard: Axe hadn't fought back or gloated that he'd gotten her in pants--that wasn’t a man who was after her all along.......the righteous anger on her face at him doubting her loyalty..... the timeline......her visits..... it all made sense. Axe _**had**_ covered for her as her friend--the same friend he had always been.....that checked all the boxes. The rumor's only 'truth' was that Bo-Katan believed it as intended.

He pulls the other man up with an extended gloved hand and a grumbled, “sorry about your face.” 

"It's fine, “Axe says, as he shakes off the rainbow of colors mysteriously still dancing behind his eyelids. He understood the older man’s anger. He shook his head harder to clear it. That first right hook almost took his head clean off. 

Axe knows when to make his exit. “I'm just gonna.....” he trails off, as he motions toward the door. “Comm me when you're ready to head back, Reeves.”

.........

“What the hell was that about?” she asks, when they’re alone.

“He said something about you being drunk and I don't even remember hitting him.”

She understands what the miscommunication must have been. She glares at his chivalrous idiocy, but she's not actually upset. Today had enough miscommunication as it was. “I can fight my own battles you know.”

“Of course you can,” he says, “but I thought I’d lend my services so those battles can get their ass kicked twice instead of once.”

She tries her best to appear put out. “You kind of ruined my surprise,” she tells him.

"You want to start over?"

She nods.

“I’m pregnant,” she says, “and it's obviously yours. Only an idiot would think otherwise.”

"What happens now?" he asks, as openly as he can. He'd never thought about wanting a kid himself, but when he heard it was someone else’s, he wanted it to be his so badly it surprised him. _Turns out it was……. **is**._

She shrugged. She wasn’t really sure about ' _what happens now_ '. They had a lot of things to figure out, but they could get there. Bo needed some time to cool down, so she'd stay at least a week this time. "I don't know where to start,” she admits. “This didn't go like I had planned."

"Have you eaten?" he asks her. It was all less apocalyptic than she thought when he didn't seem bothered by her news. 

“Nope. You buying lunch? It’s your turn, you know.”

“Yeah. I’m buying this time,” he agrees, as they sit down at their table in their usual seats. So much was the same as every one of her previous visits. They had a system down and they always got the same thing. It was good. It was safe. "Same as last time?" he assumes, with a hint of a question in his voice.

“Let's try something different instead.”

“Feeling adventurous?” he says.

She grinned and her face looked like he remembered it. "Always."

Something different could be good, he supposed. They were apparently having a kid….that was different. It was nothing he hoped for, but now that it was real, he couldn't imagine not having it either. He never backed down from a challenge. She didn't either.

Fennec would demand he get that damned genetic test, but he believed the woman in front of him that he had become so fond of despite his best efforts not to. She had wormed her way under his skin and the relief he felt that he hadn't misjudged her and she was really as loyal as he always believed was palpable. There was nothing a fancy genetic test could tell him that looking at his kid wouldn’t tell him. The hurt on her face when she thought he didn’t believe her was real enough there could be no doubting it. They were really doing this. He had wondered the last few months what the next step could be for them. This was apparently it….

If they went through with this crazy plan, they’d have a permanent connection at the end of this. He’d be bound to this woman and have a family in a way he hadn’t experienced since he was a young boy. It wasn't something he'd take lightly, though even with the most effort, he wasn't sure he'd be half the father his own buir was. This was a huge responsibility to do this right, but he didn't mind this kind of pleasant responsibility compared to to the other parts of his life. It’d be a hell of an adventure, but still this was all up to her. They'd have time to talk more later, but he wanted to know where they stood before he went into that later discussion and put his foot in his mouth about what the future would look like. 

“You know, it's not about what Bo-Katan wants, or what Axe risked by lying to her, or even what **I **want," he tells her. "It's what _you_ want. You don't have to go through this for _me_.”

“I'm not....” she assures him. “It's bigger than either of us.” She was relieved by his few words that said so much about him being open to this. His tone and his body language and his words revealed he was willing to give this a shot. 

“I think it's what I want," she says with more certainty than she felt capable of an hour ago, "but still, it's your choice as well. I'd like to know what you want too.”

He thought about it. What _did_ he want? _**This--**_ time with her and whatever path that led them down. If there was a kid or not, this is what he wanted. Her. 

He gives his answer. “More of _this_.”

She gestures to her torso and abdomen. "There's going to be a whole lot more of THIS in a few months if we're both on board."

"That's nothing I can't handle,” he says to put her at ease. “I'm on board if you are."

She looks so much like the Koska he'd first met when her eyes light up at the challenge. “You're associate Fennec? She know anything about babies?” she asks hopefully.

Boba scoffs. “She's a woman. She knows everything.”

She smirks at his description. “Good. She can help. Supervise, even.”

“She _lives_ to tell people what to do.”

"Challenge accepted then,” she agrees. “You asked me if I could stay longer before and I couldn't....but what if I stayed for a while _**now**_?

“I'd like that,” he tells her. _The short visits weren't cutting it anymore. Something more permanet would be a welcome improvement. No more half-truths and no more miscommunication. They had built a good foundation when rumors didn't get in the way, they could go from there....._

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading :)  
> I'd love to hear from you


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